Healing and Recovering
by backslip
Summary: A one-shot. Ralf recovers from an injury he got from a battle, and learns something about the medic of the team...


Disclaimer: I'm sure that you all know that I don't own TMNT-Just havin' fun with them.

* * *

Raph stirred as he felt sharp pain coming all over his body.  
He slowly fluttered his eyes open, and blinded suddenly by the bright light. 

Funny, he never remembered leaving his lights on while he was asleep..

"You're awake."

Raph blinked as his fuzzy eye-vision got clearer. Then he recognized the voice, along with the light-green face with a purple clad.

"…Don?"  
"How do you feel?"  
"Painful.. oww-" Raph clutched his head and realized he had bandages.  
"What happened to me?"

Don ignored the question and stood up. Raph noticed that he had dark rings under his eyes.  
Before he could say something, Don simply turned his heels and walked out the door, facing to Mike, who was outside.

As Raph heard their short conversation in the background, he looked around and realized that he was in the medical lab of the lair. He never remembered getting in there. And why is he covered in bandages? And why does his head and his front pains like mad?

Then he was interrupted from his thoughts as Mikey came bustling in the room, Leo following suit.

"Raph! Bro you've awoke!"  
"Raph-are you all right?"  
"Boy, I thought you would never wake up. After all that crash… it was awful, you know. All that bleeding and stuff. But that does not matter now, you're okay!"

That made Raph remember.  
He and Mikey where patrolling, and ran into some couple of Purple Dragons. While they where beating and chasing those troops away, one of them must have called to Hun. Ralf followed the fleeing punks, and in a flash, both of them where surrounded by countless foot-clan. He remembered the battle to the near end, but then all was lost.

"Mikey said you where slain and thrown over during battle." Leo said with his arms crossed.  
"Really, Raph. I don't know why your moves became so dull these days."

Raph scowled. "Oh yeah? Well, I'd like to see how you would make out from battle with about thirty-sixty well-trained ninjas versus two."  
"Well, if you where a little bit cleverer, you should have noticed out that it was a trap."

Sensing another Raphie-Leo fight coming out, Mikey waved his hands to change the subject.  
"Hey, past is past. Huh? So you and Donnie came out just in time to save us. And now, Raph is okay. Now everybody's happy!"  
then he turned to Raph. "Hey bro, you hungry? Want me to fetch you something to eat?"

Raph grinned at the idea. "Sure, Mikey. Umm… by the way, do you know what time is it?"  
Mike cocked his head and replied. "Ten past midnight when we just came in."  
Raph grimaced. "I was asleep for only that? No wonder my head hurt."  
Mike shook is head. "Nooo, you where blacked out for quite a time, my friend."  
Raph's chin hit the floor. "WHAT! I was asleep over a day and two hours?"  
"Actually, make it three days." Leo replied. Raph was still gaping.

Leo cleared his throat. "It was Don that was with you all those days. Your injuries where worse than it looked, and we all thought that you where halfway to coma. Donnie had barely any sleep nursing you."  
Mikey piped up. "Yeah… He didn't look so good either. Remember how cranky he where when we met him in the doorstep. He was also walking like a zombie."  
Raph lowered his head. "Gee.. I don't know.. I feel sorry for him."

"Well, the only way you can apologize is to get better as soon as you can. Ai? Raphie-boy!"

With that, Mikey jumped onto Raph grabbing him into a big bear hug. Raph began to scream in pain as his wounds got squeezed.  
Realizing what he had done, Mikey jumped away from Raph, who was now clutching his front with his back hunched in a very painful manner.

Before Leo could scold him or Raph to shout at him for what he did, the door slid open as Don entered with a tin tray full of bandages and medical equipments.

"What in the shell are you guys doing?" he asked angrily. Mike turned with a guilty look in his eyes.  
"I… didn't mean- to hurt him-"

Don shook his head violently and said in a frustrating voice. "I told you that Raph's wounds are not cured up yet! Out, you two! You guys really don't know how to handle a patient!"  
Both Leo and Mikey exited the lab quietly, as Mikey said to his back, "I'll make some chicken soup."

Don sighed and put the tray aside, and stepped forward Raph to exanimate his cuts. As he looked closely at them, he sighed again and shook his head.  
"Yep, it's open. I'll have to re-bandage it. Again."

Raph nodded, and while Don pulled away the bandage and saw the wound, he turned his head away.

It was a nasty slash across the front. It was stitched up for now, and blood was trickling from the ugly scales- that must been the cause of the pain.  
He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth from the pain while Don was wiping away the blood, cleaning his wounds with the medicine, and warp it up with a fresh bandage.

"Argh.. I'm gonna kill Mikey for doing this..."

Don arched his eyes. "Oh? You are the one that got involved into this in the first time."  
Raph turned guiltily to face Don. "Hey Donnie? I… I'm sorry, man."

"For what?" Don asked flatly, as he continued bandaging the injury.

"For…" Raph then realized he wasn't really thinking of what to apologize.  
"Like… yeah, for making you stay up so late watching over because of me. I heard how you where. I -I'm really thankful for that too, you know." He tried on a smile to his purple-claded brother.

But Don didn't smile back.  
"Ah, only that? Well I didn't do all this just because to get some thanks to my ill-tempered brother, you know. This proves that you do not really know what it was like to me. And you are just one complete idiot."

Raph stared with his mouth hung open. He never saw his good-natured brother talk to him like that.

That made him scowl.  
"What is your problem, Donnie?" He demanded. "I said I'm sorry that I made you stay up so long because of me. Yeah I get into this mess because of my stupid behavior, if that's what you want to remind me. So I got myself hurt. I think I had paid much for one night."

Don shot angrily. "That's not the point. So, you think you paid for your actions by some lousy big cut and a bump in the forehead."  
Then he waved his hands to himself. "Then what about ME? What in the SHELL did I do wrong for dumping myself in this?"

"What do you MEAN, Don? _I_'m the one who got hurt; _I_'m the one who got into trouble. So what is THAT all about YOU getting so _obsessed_?"  
Raph found the shouting was hurting him, so he stopped it and held his head, a groan escaping out from the corner of his lips.

That made Don silent.

He closed his mouth and turned his eyes away. He looked somehow troubled, hurt even.  
Raph never saw him like this. He moved closer and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Don…"  
"Maybe you're right. I am obsessed." He said quietly.  
"Hey, I didn't mean to shout at you. I understand -"

"No you don't." Don cut in. But his voice wasn't angry, just sad. "You will never know how it was in the past three days. It was so awful. You and the rest of them all..."

"And especially me." He added in a barely audible whisper.

Raph swallowed and moved closer. "What was it like?"

Don sighed as if scooting the memory.  
He closed his eyes and seemed like collecting his thoughts, or rather, just did that from the tiredness of his eyes.

Finally, he opened his mouth.  
"When Leo and I got there, you where horrible. You got hit in the head hard, and mostly, that big slash across your front. It was bleeding so heavily, I thought you where going to die of blood-loss.

"While we took you carefully to the medical lab and I got prepared, I saw that your heartbeat was getting low. Mikey donated his blood to you, and I did everything I could do to make it come back to life."  
He sighed and rested his head in his hand. "It had been a long night. I thought I was going to loose you for good."

"And you did not." Raph said. "Because I am here now."

Don laughed harshly. "That was not all when it was over. Your cut was deeper than I suspected. It was lucky that the blade didn't touch the organs, but it did some serious damage to you, and you broke some ribs in progress. And we didn't know whether your bump in the head would have effect to your brains."

Raph swallowed.

"Think about it." Said Don. "I had to deal with them ALL. All by myself! You could be dying in front of me, and it was up to me to make you recover, from the very bottom! And everybody was depending on me, even master Splinter!"

Don looked at him, and Raph thought he saw some tears in his eyes.

"You all think it's so easy." He said in a bitter voice. "Just like when you guys come to me with a broken television set or a toaster. You use it all as you want, and break it then come to me to fix it for you. Sure, I could handle most of those things easily and effortlessly. But it come to you guys, it's different. It is nothing compared to any TV sets for me to repair. It handles skills, but also tremendous loads of responsibility. One little mistake from me could hurt you more, or worse take your lives away."

Don shivered at the thought. "You'll never know how much I felt like that when I was handling you for past three days, Raph. Each time your heart pressure got low or your breathing becomes irregular, my heart would sink to the bottom begging not for the very worst to come."  
He hung his head down. "I don't know how I survived in the stress."

"Wow."  
Ralf breathed in shock. "Don... I... I never knew…"

"You never tried." Don added miserably. "You guys just believe in me, that I would make you recover _any_ battle-wounds that you guys dump yourself into. You guys where too busy running into any trouble you could cause. Come back with various life-threatning wounds. And never know how much it scares me to death, to might loose you guys because of _me_."

With that, Don took a deep breath that he seemed to be holding.  
It was like he was waited so long to talk this out loud. He lowered his head, and quickly wiped away a stray tear when he thought Raph wasn't looking.

Raph didn't know what to say.  
He never knew Don was handling those things while he was caring them after every battle, he never thought that his calm, brainiac brother would have something so worrying in his heels, so much that it hurt him inside.

Now he knew how he felt all along. Why he looked so miserable when he was treating their wounds that was especially deep.

"Hey Don... I'm sorry." Raph finally said. "I'm sorry for making you worry about me. I'm sorry I have ignored your feelings… I…"  
He sighed. He wasn't used to say things like these out loud. "I'm sorry for everything."

Don looked at Raph with knowing looks in his eyes.  
"It's okay, Raph. I didn't say all this just to get your apologies…" He was back to his warm smile.

"No." Raph said sheepishly. "But I now know how you where back all these days. You are really brave, Don. Now I feel we are so lucky to have someone like you in the team. For your medical skills and for you yourself."

"Medical science wasn't all my best interests, you know." Don said with a shrug. "I was rather into mechanics.. As you guys all know about."  
"Then when was the time you got so expert on them?" Raph asked.

Don thought for a moment.  
"I think…" he started. "When we where about twelve. And Mikey got himself hurt while he was skateboarding in the sewers. He sprained his ankles, and we just have to give him simple treatments because we didn't know how to deal it more, and we couldn't just send him to the doctor because of what we where."

"Yeah, I remember that. Splinter just begged that he didn't break his bones with it."

"And lucky for him that he didn't." Don laughed. "But that was the time when I decided I should study more about Medical studies on my own. At first, it was for emergencies, like cuts and bruises we get from battle, but as we became older and I realized we where facing greater dangers with our enemy, such as shredder, I forced myself be close to expert surgeon so I could deal with most of the injuries we bring ourselves into."  
His eyes got serious again. "Not to let any one of us die because we sit around helplessly doing nothing when one of us gets hurt."

"Wow." Raph said again. "That is some responsibility you held. Man, I sometimes think that you take responsible in us more than Leo. I bet you should be the leader instead of him."  
He joked the last part.

Don laughed.  
"I don't think so, Raph. I won't dare to have the guts to lead you guys, and second, I am not that bossy."  
"You're so right about the second one." Raph laughed out loud. He was glad that Don came back to his smiling self.

Raph made a sincere look as he put his hands on Don's shoulder.

"Anyway, I got you put into some hard time during past days because of me. I'm real sorry because of that. I swear..."

If there's anything that I could do to reduce your pain... Raph thought, I'll do anything that matters...

As if he read Raph's thoughts, Don smiled. "Tell you what, Raph? Promise me one thing."  
"Huh?"

"Is to not to slow down your moves during battle because of this." Don replied in much to Raph's surprise.  
"Means, I want you to continue your crazy acts, not concerning whether you would get hurt in process."

Raph blinked. "Why?"

"Because I heard Mikey say to me you only got hurt because you where covering him in the back during battle."  
Don said. "Well.. You did carelessly step into those foots knowing it was a trap, but most of your actions take place for what is good." He smiled. "And I want it that way. That's what makes you yourself. What makes you Raph. Even if it means it takes me to worry my brain out of my shell."

"Donnie, you need to get some sleep." Raph gave a chuckle. "All right about that, but I promise to be a little more careful during it, I suppose."

Don shifted a yawn as he smiled back.  
Then the Lab door slid open, and Mikey came in with a bowl of steaming chicken soup.

"Yo, dude! Are you okay to have a bite now?" he called cheerfully as he handed Raph the bowl. He added sheepishly, "Hope the spot I squeezed you don't hurt too bad."  
"No, it didn't Mikey. Just nearly killed me from the pain, that's all" Raph said as Mikey immediately glanced him with a guilty look.  
He laughed to himself as he picked up the spoon. "But I'll see whether I'll kill you or not after I eat this thing first."

Mikey's eyes lit up.  
"It's my masterpiece, you know! Bet's the best one I've ever cooked! I'm sure the taste of it would melt all your angers away!"

Raph rolled his eyes as Don laughed and yawned at the same time.  
Since his worst worries had been gone, the tiredness was washing over in furry.

Mikey gave him a worried glance. "Dude, you look awful! You better get some sleep now bro, since Raph's okay now and you don't have to worry."

Don smiled. "Yeah.. I think so too."

He stood up tiredly and walked to the door.  
"Raph, if there's anything that you need, just call me, alright? And try not to stand up yet. Rest yourself more after the soup."  
"I'll have an eye on him!" Mikey volunteered, and Raph nodded a yes.

Just before Don opened the door to get out, Raph spoke up.  
"Hey Donnie? Thanks."

Don turned to his bandaged-up brother and smiled.

"Anytime, Raph." He said. "Anytime."

END

* * *

A/N: I read so many stories of the turtles getting hurt and get cured by Don. But in most of the stories, it was focused to the guy who was hurt; so I decided to write about what was in Don's head while he was curing them. I think I kinda screwed it up a little, not to mention couldn't get the hang of Raph's personality:( ...Oh well, but I'll do appreciate your RR:D 


End file.
